New York Giants: from a defeat in the first game to winning the playoff game – NFL Special Part I
This National Football League (NFL) season is not less than a rollercoaster ride for the New York Giants, who have recently beaten the Atlanta Falcons, 24-2, in their first playoff game to earn a matchup against the defending Super Bowl Champions, Green
Bay Packers.
Their rushing game and defence clicked just at the right time as they routed the Falcons, signalling deadly intentions for Packers.
The Falcons could not even score a single touchdown or a field goal as their only scoring move came when the Giants’ quarterback, Eli Manning, intentionally grounded the ball in his own end zone.
The Cowboys were playing like champions, but that was not what they did throughout the regular season.
In this space, we are going to have a look at the Giants’ performance throughout the regular season and see how they were able to reach this far.
At Washington
The Giants did not kick off their campaign well in the regular season.
For their first game, they travelled to play Washington Redskins and were defeated badly, 28-14.
The Giants started the first quarter well and grabbed an early lead, but they could not retain the lead and surrendered as the Redskins’ offence accelerated later in the game.
The Redskins scored a touchdown in the third and fourth quarter each to beat the Giants.
Against St. Louis Rams
The Giants got their first victory of the season when they hosted St. Louis Rams, who would go down to losing 14 games in the season.
Giants’ passing game was impressive throughout the game with quarterback, Eli Manning, finding perfect receivers for his passes, most of the times.
The Giants scored four touchdowns whereas the Rams, while relying on field goals, could only score one touchdown.
Manning did not send as many passes as his Rams’ counterpart, Sam Bradford did, but the former’s accuracy became the decisive factor of the game.
At Philadelphia
Giants’ next stop was Philadelphia where they played the Eagles, who were the National Football Conference (NFC) – East division's leaders.
The game remained evenly poised until the third quarter when the teams were separated only by two points with the Eagles in lead.
However, Manning who has developed a reputation as a player, impressively led the comeback in the final quarter, sending down two touchdown passes to gain the decisive lead against Eagles.
In that game, Manning completed 16 of his 23 attempted passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns, receiving a quarterback rating of 145.7 for the game.
At Arizona
After starting the season with a failure, the Giants did well to get back to their winning ways.
They won their third straight game of the season when they travelled to Arizona in the fourth week of the regular season.
It was Manning time, yet again!
After falling 10 points behind, the Giants scored three touchdowns in the final quarter while allowing only one to get a four-point lead over the Cardinals.
Manning managed 321 passing yards in the game, while throwing two touchdown passes.
Against Seattle Seahawks
The Giants mistakenly adapted to the final quarter comebacks.
As a result, their three-game winning streak was snapped when they played against the Seahawks.
After falling behind, the Giants did get a lead over the opponents in the final quarter when Manning and Victor Cruz combined for a touchdown, but the Seahawks scored more points to rattle Giants' defence.
The Seahawks scored two touchdowns within the last five minutes of the game and left the opponents in awe.
To be continued...
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